HBS Apps Down 4.5%, But Few Changes In Class Profile

Harvard remains the gold standard for business schools in many ways, not least of which is the huge number of living alumni, more than 84,000, and alumni clubs around the globe:

LOSEE UNSURE OF HOW THE LACK OF A ROUND THREE WILL IMPACT HBS APPLICATIONS THIS YEAR

Government, education and nonprofit students account for 8% of the Class of 2020, versus 7% last year; healthcare and biotech students represent 7% of the class, same as last year; 6% come from the consumer products industry, while 6% had been in the energy and extractive minerals field, both the exact percentage of the previous class.

MBA students from the military account for 5% of this year’s entering class, also the same as last year, and students from the industrial and heavy manufacturing sector represent 4% of the Class of 2020, down a percent from 5%. Students in the “other services” category represent 6% of the class, down from 7% last year.

Losee wasn’t sure how the change to two rounds from three will impact this year’s application volume (see HBS Kills An MBA Admissions Round). “When we made the decision to cut round three, we were trying to think of what was best for the applicant and not the application numbers,” he says. “It could be the people who would have applied in a round three might show up next fall in round one.”

This year’s class profile, moreover, was put in a jazzy new and more attractive web design with a slickly produced video to convey the diversity of students.